HTC’s Puccini is AT&T’s first LTE 4G tablet

Yesterday we got our first glimpse at what could be AT&T’s first LTE 4G phone, and now its first LTE tablet, the HTC Puccini, has been uncovered by Engadget.

The Puccini is HTC’s first 10-inch tablet, and its spy sighting now is a sign that AT&T may gearing up to finally launch its LTE network.

The company previously said?it plans to launch LTE in five cities this summer — but with the season nearing its end, AT&T will have to launch its 4G network soon otherwise it risks delaying its rollout timetable. AT&T is already far behind Verizon, who launched its 4G network late last year and has been steadily rolling it out to new cities every month.

The Puccini doesn’t look like it offers up any surprises. Engadget reports that it has a 1.5 gigahertz dual-core processor, 1 gigabyte of RAM, an 8 megapixel rear camera, and it will run Android 3.0 Honeycomb. HTC’s previously announced 7-inch Flyer tablet will also be hitting the US next month, Engadget reports.

As I wrote yesterday, we’ll likely see AT&T doing some major catching up with its LTE 4G network and devices during the rest of the year. AT&T launched two LTE devices this week, the USBConnect Momentum 4G and Mobile Hotspot Elevate 4G, but they won’t be able to take advantage of the carrier’s LTE network until it actually launches.

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Tags: Android, Honeycomb, Puccini, tablets

Companies: AT&T, HTC

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Samsung’s Impulse 4G could be AT&T’s first LTE 4G phone

AT&T has yet to launch its LTE 4G network, but we’re already seeing spy shots of possible models of its LTE phones.

Today we have a glimpse at the Samsung Impulse 4G, which could very well end up being AT&T’s first LTE 4G phone, according to the mobile site Boy Genius Report.

There aren’t any details available yet for the Impulse, but as BGR points out, it looks strikingly similar to Samsung’s Droid Charge on Verizon. That phone sports a 1 gigahertz processor (surprisingly, not dual core), 8 megapixel rear camera, 1.3 megapixel front camera and a 4.3-inch Super AMOLED Plus display. Given that pretty much every new Android phone is dual-core these days, I suspect Samsung will upgrade the processor for the Impulse 4G.

AT&T is still far behind Verizon in terms of its LTE 4G deployment and phone availability, but we’ll likely see it doing some major catching up during the rest of the year. AT&T launched two LTE devices this week, the USBConnect Momentum 4G and Mobile Hotspot Elevate 4G, but they won’t be able to take advantage of the carrier’s LTE network until it actually launches. The company previously said?it plans to launch LTE in five cities this summer.

Verizon, meanwhile, is seemingly bringing LTE 4G to new cities every few weeks. The carrier has brought LTE to more than 117 cities since it launched late last year, and it expects to cover 185 million Americans with LTE by the end of the year. By the end of 2013, Verizon says, the entire country will be covered by its LTE network.

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Tags: 4G, Android, Impulse 4G, LTE, smartphones

Companies: AT&T, Samsung, Verizon, Verizon Wireless

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Week in review: Meet IBM’s first chip modeled on the human brain

Here’s our roundup of the week’s top tech business news. First, the most popular stories VentureBeat published in the last seven days:

IBM produces first working chips modeled on the human brain — IBM has been shipping computers for more than 65 years, and it is finally on the verge of creating a true electronic brain.

Exclusive: How LinkedIn used Node.js and HTML5 to build a better, faster app — LinkedIn’s new mobile app is two to 10 times faster on the client side than its predecessor thanks to Node.js.

Sleek Motorola Droid HD photos leaked alongside Droid Bionic — Leaked photos of the new Motorola Droid HD smartphone appeared alongside the much-delayed Droid Bionic today.

LinkedIn’s new mobile app is so gorgeous, you’ll actually want to use it — For many young professionals, it’s hard to imagine why you’d want to use a business social-networking site like LinkedIn on the go.

HP drops TouchPad price to $99 in Canada. Is the U.S. far behind? — After HP announced it was killing its webOS devices, many of us were left wondering what the company planned to do about the numerous TouchPad tablets still sitting on retail shelves.

And here are five more posts we think are important, thought-provoking, fun, or all of the above:

Google buys Motorola Mobility for $12.5B, says Android will stay open — Yowza. Google this week announced that it will buy Motorola Mobility — Moto’s mobile device arm — for $12.5 billion.

Hands-on preview of Gears of War 3: an epic story with closure — Gears of War 3 from Epic Games will be one of the game industry’s early seasonal blockbusters when the third-person shooter game debuts on Microsoft’s Xbox 360 Sept. 20.

With HP’s PC spinoff, vertical integration falls out of favor — Big companies go through a particular life cycle when it comes to expansion and vertical integration: They spend a lot of time growing businesses and then acquiring new ones.

So long TouchPad, Pre: HP kills WebOS hardware business — HP confirmed this week it’s killing its webOS devices, including the TouchPad tablet, as well as the Pre and Pixi phones.

How Microsoft engineered Kinect to withstand gamers and lightning strikes — Microsoft engineers spoke publicly for the first time yesterday about how they built the Kinect motion sensing system, offering a rare glimpse inside the secret world of product design.

Next Story: Entrepreneur Corner: Marketing truths and a primer on?networking
Previous Story: Flickr releases new real-time developer tools in time for Photo Hack?Day

Tags: apps, Kinect, tablets, TouchPad, webOS

Companies: Epic, Google, HP, IBM, LinkedIn, Microsoft, Motorola

View the original article here

Week in review: Meet IBM’s first chip modeled on the human brain

Here’s our roundup of the week’s top tech business news. First, the most popular stories VentureBeat published in the last seven days:

IBM produces first working chips modeled on the human brain — IBM has been shipping computers for more than 65 years, and it is finally on the verge of creating a true electronic brain.

Exclusive: How LinkedIn used Node.js and HTML5 to build a better, faster app — LinkedIn’s new mobile app is two to 10 times faster on the client side than its predecessor thanks to Node.js.

Sleek Motorola Droid HD photos leaked alongside Droid Bionic — Leaked photos of the new Motorola Droid HD smartphone appeared alongside the much-delayed Droid Bionic today.

LinkedIn’s new mobile app is so gorgeous, you’ll actually want to use it — For many young professionals, it’s hard to imagine why you’d want to use a business social-networking site like LinkedIn on the go.

HP drops TouchPad price to $99 in Canada. Is the U.S. far behind? — After HP announced it was killing its webOS devices, many of us were left wondering what the company planned to do about the numerous TouchPad tablets still sitting on retail shelves.

And here are five more posts we think are important, thought-provoking, fun, or all of the above:

Google buys Motorola Mobility for $12.5B, says Android will stay open — Yowza. Google this week announced that it will buy Motorola Mobility — Moto’s mobile device arm — for $12.5 billion.

Hands-on preview of Gears of War 3: an epic story with closure — Gears of War 3 from Epic Games will be one of the game industry’s early seasonal blockbusters when the third-person shooter game debuts on Microsoft’s Xbox 360 Sept. 20.

With HP’s PC spinoff, vertical integration falls out of favor — Big companies go through a particular life cycle when it comes to expansion and vertical integration: They spend a lot of time growing businesses and then acquiring new ones.

So long TouchPad, Pre: HP kills WebOS hardware business — HP confirmed this week it’s killing its webOS devices, including the TouchPad tablet, as well as the Pre and Pixi phones.

How Microsoft engineered Kinect to withstand gamers and lightning strikes — Microsoft engineers spoke publicly for the first time yesterday about how they built the Kinect motion sensing system, offering a rare glimpse inside the secret world of product design.

Next Story: Entrepreneur Corner: Marketing truths and a primer on?networking
Previous Story: Flickr releases new real-time developer tools in time for Photo Hack?Day

Tags: apps, Kinect, tablets, TouchPad, webOS

Companies: Epic, Google, HP, IBM, LinkedIn, Microsoft, Motorola

View the original article here